i must admit, my old man always told me when i was learning to drive to touch second gear first to get the synchro going on first, have always selected second and then first seems to go straight in, have to do this with my old ZF 5 speed from the 70s as its difficult to get into first when cold. could be a whole lot of bull, but seems to work for my m20 and zf box.
also very true about linkages and the circlip, nearly destroyed my m20 with a broken circlip on third gear, just got it in time before the bearing tore itself to bits.